Roland Boyes

Roland Boyes, who died on June 16 aged 69, was the outspoken Left-wing Labour MP for Houghton and Washington from 1983 until early-onset Alzheimer's disease forced his retirement in 1997.

A former maths teacher, Boyes was an unmistakable figure at Westminster, always with a vivid red tie, matching socks and darkened glasses under tousled hair. This gave him a slightly sinister appearance, although he insisted that the spectacles were a necessity, not an affectation.

In his early days in the Commons Boyes showed scant respect for parliamentary convention. He specialised in heckling from his seat in a strong Yorkshire accent - "Bollocks!" he once shouted while the SDP leader, Roy Jenkins, was in full spate. The spectacle of Jenkins being thrown off course provided most of the House with quiet amusement. Boyes nonetheless deserved one commentator's description of him as one of "nature's hooligans".

There was some surprise in 1985 when Neil Kinnock appointed him spokesman on the environment, and later defence. But Boyes proved hard-working, effective and capable of tempering his brashness with humour. He also demonstrated a non-partisan concern about a wide range of social problems, notably alcoholism. The experience of being brought up with a drunken father made him a lifelong teetotaller and campaigner against alcohol abuse.

In the Commons he became chairman of the all-party Temperance Committee and campaigned, sometimes through private members' bills, to legalise random breath tests, to reduce the permitted blood alcohol level, and to ban alcohol advertising on television and the sale of high-strength cans of beer.

A skilled amateur photographer, he co-founded the all-party photography group and, in 1990, published People and Parliament, 1990: a Book of Photographs, a collection of black-and-white portraits of MPs which won widespread admiration. Among these was a striking study of the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who readily agreed to sit for him, brushing aside her advisers who wanted to stage-manage proceedings.

But in 1993 Boyes was returning to his Millbank flat from the Commons when he lost his way. On another occasion he found that he could not read the time from a digital clock in his flat and had to walk out into the street and find Big Ben.

At first he was reluctant to admit that he had a problem, but it soon became evident to family and friends.

Colleagues noticed that he had begun to forget his words when making speeches, and he even got lost finding his way round his own house. Eventually, in 1995, he agreed to see a doctor, who diagnosed Alzheimer's disease. Despite his illness Boyes carried on with his duties as an MP and turned his energies to raising funds for Alzheimer's research, campaigning to raise £30,000 for a scientific photography suite in a new centre planned by the Alzheimer's Research Trust at the Royal Infirmary in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The suite, named after him, was opened in 2001.

Roland Boyes was born at Holmfirth, Yorkshire, on February 12 1937. Educated at Penistone Grammar School, he won a scholarship to read Chemistry at Leicester University, but left after a year, complaining that he had been made to feel inferior on account of his Yorkshire accent.

After two years supply teaching in Yorkshire, he went on to Coventry Teachers' Training College, then worked as a mathematics teacher while studying part-time for a master's degree in Economics at Bradford University. In 1974 he obtained a research post in Durham County Council's social services department, becoming assistant director of social services in 1975.

Boyes had joined the Labour Party aged 20, and served in local government and as secretary of Easington Labour Party before being chosen as prospective parliamentary candidate for Scarborough in 1976. He did not fight the seat, having been chosen as prospective MEP for Durham in the 1979 European direct elections.

He stood as an anti-marketeer, defying both the official party line and the Left's boycott of the European Parliament. In 1983 he was chosen to replace Tom Unwin as prospective parliamentary candidate for the safe Labour seat of Houghton le Spring (which became Houghton and Washington).

In the House he joined the Tribune group, later serving as its chairman, and campaigned vigorously for unilateral disarmament and an end to testing on animals.

A strong supporter of the protesters at Greenham Common, he scored something of a coup when he elicited the admission from the Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, that the protesting women could be shot if they trespassed within the security fence.

During the early 1990s Boyes was an assiduous member of select committees. After his illnesss was diagnosed he retired from the House at the 1997 General Election.

Boyes was fond of brass bands, rugby union and football; he served as a vice-chairman of Hartlepool United. After being injured in 1985 during violence which followed a Chelsea-Sunderland match at Stamford Bridge, he campaigned to get the Football Association to take a tougher line on hooliganism.

Roland Boyes married, in 1962, Patricia James, who cared for him devotedly during his long final illness. She and their two sons survive him.